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Kent Rogowski has been hard at work on several different projects that flash a delicate sense of humor on the big question of identity. He is also the founder of Scaffold, a non-profit organization that gives fellowships to emerging and mid-career artists.

This is a huge disco ball. The hugest, actually. Michel De Broin‘s newest site specific installation One Thousand Speculations was created for Toronoto’s Luminato Festival. The piece consists of disco ball over 25 feet in diameter hoisted 80 feet into the air, spun and spotlit each night of the festival. The ‘thousand’ of the piece’s title likely refers to the ball’s mirrors – a thousand of which reflect on David Pecaut Square below. Each of the individual mirrors reflect a large swath of light that travels over the yards and buildings each evening. The surrounds, perhaps unavoidably, seem to feel just a little more lighthearted.

A graduate of the Milwaukee Institute of Art & Design, Jeremy Pettis is an up-and-coming graphic designer specializing in a sort of 1970s American style hand-drawn typography. As his 2007 thesis project, Jeremy created a sort of logotype for 26 different animals (A-Z), attempting to evoke certain characteristics of each animal through clever visual cues and tricks.

Michael Bevilacqua current exhibit at Gering &Lopez Gallery in NYC showcases a single, monumental painting titled An Ideal For Living; a canvas that the artist has spent more than the past year painting. As with a number of Bevilacqua’s works, the title references a particular source of music, in this case the 1978 debut album by the post-punk rock band Joy Division. The band became an obsession for Bevilacqua, so much so that the painting grew along with his focus, consuming his attention and mirroring his state of mind. Each song, each lyric began taking on particular significance for Bevilacqua, who found many parallels to his own life and reflected his outlook on his surroundings. An Ideal For Living in fact created the rhythm of the artist’s life over the past year, further loosening his painting style and bringing about a series of work that he refers to as ‘the New Dis Order.’ Clearly diaristic in nature, the 30’ painting features an eclectic mix of color, text, visual styles and process. As rich as one would expect a yearlong work to be, the painting is also nuanced, with areas of sharpness and clarity layered upon washes of color and moody hues. Juxtaposed against this singular outpouring, other new works take a different approach, becoming extremely minimal and hauntingly symbolic, drained of color or highly textured.

In a combination of makeup art and illustration, Israeli artist Tal Peleg has turned her eyelids into expressive canvases. Peruse her collection and you will see eyes and brow bones masterfully transformed into emotional landscapes, various animals, and renditions of famous paintings and movie scenes. Each piece is painstakingly achieved using a combination of eye shadows, watercolors, eyeliners, and tiny brushes, taking hours to perfect. The result is a series of artworks—ephemeral in nature—that express identity and creativity in unique ways.

“Makeup is an amazing form of art, and I use it in order to make my eye tell a story,” Peleg wrote on Bored Panda. “Inspiration is all around me, and I give my own unique artistic interpretation using makeup. It can be inspired by emotions, movies, fairytales, animals, food, important social matters, and more.” (Source)

The eye is the proverbial “window to the soul”—the lens through which our inner states become visible to others. It is incredible how the mood of Peleg’s ice-blue iris appears to shift depending on the artwork and narrative that surrounds it. As mentioned above, the topic range of Peleg’s eye-art is vast; some explore scenes of child-like innocence, while others convey important social messages, such as the pain and isolation of bullying, and the spiraling, dark coils of depression. With incredible detail and sensitivity, Peleg has captured these themes and experiences well, with her eye as the deep locus that communicates their significance on intuitive, emotional levels.

Raised a Catholic, and using obvious religious iconography, Liz Maw like to paint other-worldly and sublime beings. By combining the faces of celebrities or people she knows and admires with pseudo-mystical relics she glorifies them. Maw draws on many different periods and styles, mixing contemporary symbols with techniques from the Old Dutch masters, her subjects in poses akin to many Renaissance works. It is this mix of old and new; mundane and divine; hyper-realism and fantasy; sacred and profane that makes her work at once beautiful and comical. As one critic said:

“Her sleek paintwork resembles air brushing in its precision, offering a surrealism somewhere between Salvador Dali and the kind of hot-rod paintings which stretch across panel vans. Liz’s paintings are drenched with a sense of desire, beauty and power.” (source)

Her “Colleen” painting features a beautiful naked woman perched on a cloud surrounded by floating seashells and in a glowing sky illuminated by lightning. Intentionally referring to The Immaculate Conception painting, Maw manages to rework something old and accepted with a kitschy, slightly erotic spin. Talking about what is “distasteful” and what isn’t, Maw likes to challenge people’s standards. She says she doesn’t understand why some people will accept a painting of a figure with one breast covered, and others would think it to be inappropriate.

“I think that female sexuality is a very mystical thing… I don’t think that romance goes seamlessly into sex for women really. Maybe it can, maybe it can’t. A lot of women disconnect romance from sex. I don’t know why that is. “

She wants to paint to encourage more warmth and softness, and less judgement. And I think one painting at a time she will.

People are on the move in the installations of Clinton De Menezes. Large crowds of people seem to be trudging through a white field – a snowy plain or salt flat. The exodus, though, plays out on the side of a wall. The South African artist’s model migrations exhibit patience and attention to detail. Each figure is hand painted before being placed and plastered to the wall. De Menezes’ installations illustrate the personal and collective drama of human migration. His work is clearly influence by the ever shifting and complex social landscape of the land of his birth.

Samsøn is proud to present Suzannah Sinclair’s 2nd solo exhibition with the gallery: “Tomorrow is Here” from March 26 – May 1st, 2010: Artist’s Reception Friday, March 26 / 6-8pm

The new ocean paintings are 8 x 11 inches; the size of a page from these same vintage men’s magazines devoid of figures.

“They are sometimes from advertisements trying to convey a warm easy feeling that embody the beauty and stillness that I find in the women I paint. I like the pairing of ‘Sister What a Good Time’: landscape, that insane feeling of getting lost in the depths of someone’s eyes or the blue depth of the ocean.”

The works will be installed in an environment complete with lamps, rugs, Bertoia benches and pots/planters with plants setting a stage for comfort, suggestion & space-time. A mirror can be part of a scene without the figure through reflection.